Small MPU – Page 549
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News
Xingu wraps Guide starring Downey Jr
Rosario Dawson,Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Eric Roberts joined Robert Downey Jr in thecast of A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, which has completed principal photography for TrudieStyler's Xingu Films. Orlando (Dito)Montiel's directorial debut is a product of the Sundance Institute's Directorsand Screenwriters Labs and centres on Montiel's youth growing ...
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Gerolami named md, Europe, of NBC Universal Global Networks
Olivier Gerolamihas been named managing director, Europe, for NBC Universal Global Networks.Beginning Nov 1in London, Gerolami will oversee NBC Universal Global Networks' television assetsin Europe, where the company's established channels include 13th Street and SCIFI in France, Das Vierte, 13th Street, SCI FI and GIGA in Germany, StudioUniversal in Italy, ...
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US network AZN buys in Asian movies from Sony
AZN Television,Comcast's wholly owned cable channel targeting Asian-Americans, has securedexclusive US broadcast rights to the next 10 Asian features released in the USby Sony Pictures Classics.The overalloutput deal with Sony Pictures Television includes rights to 16 recent Asianfeatures from Sony Pictures Classics and six from Sony Pictures HomeEntertainment, including Kung ...
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DreamWorks exits merger talks with NBC Universal
DreamWorks has pulled out of$1bn merger talks with NBC Universal as two months of exclusive negotiationsended without a deal this week. Both parties were optimisticin July when talks got underway for Universal to acquire the studio founded bySteven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. However any eventual dealbetween the parties ...
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Warner, Universal seal China-Russia video deal
Warner Home Video (WHV) andUniversal Pictures International (UPI) will release each other's titles in China and Russia respectively in a joint venture aimed at thwartingpiracy in both emerging markets.CAV Warner HomeEntertainment, a joint releasing operation between WHV and China Audio Video,will handle Universal's video titles, and UPI will release WHV ...
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Two Sons strikes a chord at Brazilian box office
Two Sons Of Francisco, a biopic about Brazilian country music duo Zeze DiCamargo & Luciano, has become the highest-grossing Brazilian film of theyear in its home territory. The film has topped thecharts for six weeks straight, grossing just over $10m (R$22.7m) since itsdebut on August 19, according to local distributor ...
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Hollywood presses charges in Star Wars piracy case
Hollywood fired off significant anti-piracy broadsides thisweek as eight people faced charges for their roles in the illegal distributionof Star Wars: Episode III days before the picture's global release.In a separate case, RonaldRedding pleaded to illegally distributing a "screener" copy of MillionDollar Baby, the Warner Bros drama that won four ...
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Solondz heads to Russia for Palindromes bow
Todd Solondz will attend theRussian premiere of Palindromes at the American Autumn In Moscowfestival of contemporary American culture, which runs from Oct 12-16.Solondz will also be on handfor a special screening of his 1995 feature Welcome To The Dollhouse,playing in the IndieVisual programme that focuses on American independentcinema.Gus Van Zant's ...
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Indian filmmaker challenges onscreen smoking ban
Hindi film director andproducer Mahesh Bhatt has taken the Indian government to court over newlegislation that bans the depiction of smoking in films and TV serials. The New Delhi High Court hasdirected the Indian government to make a submission by Sept 30 in response toBhatt's petition. Acting through his counsel, ...
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Reviews
Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story
Dir/scr: John Gatins. US.2005. 104mins.Horseracing often has thereputation of being a sport ruled by, and mainly for, the wealthy - thoseunencumbered by the pesky constraints of regular, office-bred employment. Asthe recent critical and crossover screen success of Seabiscuit proved,though, the same general rules of other underdog movies apply to tales ...
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Reviews
American Gun
Dir: Aric Avelino. US.2005. 95mins.A sombre portrait ofmodern American society, Aric Avelino's debut picture looks like anotherversion of Paul Haggis' Crash, realised in the shadow of Gus Van Sant's Elephant.Shot in episodic form, with each story only vaguely related to the others - ifat all - Avelino and Steven Bagatourian's ...
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Reviews
The Notorious Bettie Page
Dir. Mary Harron. US.2005. 91mins.The detachment from hersubject that Mary Harron successfully kept with her screen adaptation of AmericanPsycho (2000) is in evidence again with The Notorious Bettie Page -although the end result is less compelling.With Bret Easton Ellis'novel, Harron and co-writer Guinevere Turner delivered a chilling and darklyfunny slice ...
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Reviews
Garpastum
Dir: Alexei Guerman Jr.Russ. 2005. 118mins.With its stunnisngphotography, interminable takes, abstract narrative and metaphoric ambitions,Alexei Guerman Jr sophomore effort Garpastum cannot fail to become acritics' favourite and a must-book for any self-respecting film festival. Thatit left Venice - where it competed - without any distinction reflects more onthe juries than ...
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News
Happiness takes top honours at Athens festival
Just days after winning theGolden Shell for Best Picture at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Czech-Germanco-production Something Like Hapiness (Sesti) directed by Bodhan Slamawas named best film at the 11th Athens International Film Festival-Opening Nights.The Golden Athena awardcarrying together a Euros 5,000 purse was received by the leading actress ofthe ...
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Corbijn takes Control with Joy Division biopic
Rock photographer and musicvideo director Anton Corbijn is preparing for an early 2006 shoot for his firstfeature film, tentatively titled Control, about the life of the late JoyDivision singer Ian Curtis. Producers Orian Williams andTodd Eckert of US-based Claraflora first announced the project in January andCorbijn tells ScreenDaily.com that they ...
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Miramax bags US, remake rights to Jet Set
Miramax has acquired remake and US distribution rights to French-language comedy Jet Set which Hilltop Entertainment is selling internationally in collaboration with French packaging specialist Jean-Michel Ciszewski.The film is a "fish-out-of-water" tale about a comedian's attempts to infiltrate the jet set in order to save a nightspot threatened by closure. ...
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Austria, Poland, Sweden, Norway name Oscar films
Austria, Poland and Swedenhave announced their contenders for the foreign language Oscar category.- Veteranfilmmaker Feliks Falk's The Collector (Komornik), which charts 48 hoursin the life of a ruthless debt collector, has been selected as the Polish entry.Falk's first film for ten years, The Collector was the bigwinner at the 30th ...
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Jobson reteams with Tartan for New Town Killers
Writer-director Richard Jobson is re-teaming with HamishMcAlpine's Tartan Films on his next project, The New Town Killers, dueto shoot in Edinburgh early next year. This will be the third collaborationbetween Jobson and McAlpine following on from 16 Years Of Alcohol and A WomanIn Winter.The £1 million thriller is set against ...
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Germany's TV-Loonland launches distribution arm
Family programmingspecialist TV-Loonland has launched its own theatrical and home entertainmentdistribution arm Loonland Pictures to market in-house and third partyproductions in Germany.The first title - Alan Simpson's animationfeature Heidi - will be released in collaboration with 20th Century Foxand NFP Marketing as distribution and marketing partners.The co-production between TV-Loonland, its ...
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Experts say 'tipping point' has arrived for digital cinema
After years of predictionsand speculation, digital cinema is finally becoming a reality, Thomas Hoegh,CEO of Arts Alliance Media, told a Screen International conference inLondon on Tuesday. During his keynote addressat the Embracing Digtial Cinema conference, Hoegh declared that digital cinema"has arrived" and that there is "a growing sense of momentum ...